The Primates of the Anglican Communion are meeting next week to, I don’t know, talk some more. If you’re a Christian you might like to pray that they agree on who Jesus is and how he can be best known, like in the scriptures, or something. Here are some predictions if you like church minutia. Here is an interesting take on the roots of our modern understanding of human sexuality. And here is something funny to cheer you up. I’ve... Read more
One It’s been some length of time since I’ve indulged myself in the mental calm of Friday Quick Takes. And if there’s anything I need more of, it’s mental calm. Spent the week with the verse, “In quietness and trust shall be your strength” rattling round in my cranial cavity–it seems too elevated to call it a brain any more–and tried to work it several alternative ways. In freaking out and despondency shall be your despair. In sarcasm and laziness... Read more
I am mostly caught in the meme of writing about men and women in marriage–how they can live happily together, what kind of threats from inside and outside might potentially overtake them–so that I don’t often write about men and women in the church. I supposed I could do more, because, well, a lot of the brokenness that wends its way through marriage is in the church, but, well, just to go on hedging, it’s dicey. But a friend sent... Read more
I was combing through the Internet looking for something to be angry about (that’s just a little joke) and instead found a gem. A woman, who seems to have been married about as long as I have, suddenly, for the first time, heard herself belittling her husband. It’s a great piece. You should go read it and then wander back here if you like, or not. I’m not going to tell you what to do, really I’m not. What this... Read more
After railing on about the Listicle of Doom, I spent the rest of the day thinking about The Law–God’s law, of course, but also the laws that we make for ourselves. And, I admitted to myself that I would rather die than get in trouble with anyone. I am careful to be on time, and I’m careful in my car, I am careful in my homeschool, I try really hard to meet all cultural expectations, in so far as I... Read more
I am a person of lists, which drives Matt crazy. I have one big list that is subdivided into many other lists, by category, and as long as I keep my list in my busy little hand, I have a pretty decent sense of order and accomplishment. Occasionally, of course, I am stupid enough to try to put my list in my phone, which means I will forget to look at it, or worse, I put it somewhere safe, and... Read more
I woke up wide eyed and irrationally panicked, on the first day of this new year, my mind crowded with several thousand things I needed to do right then. I lay in the dark and tried to climb down from the edges of insanity, reminding myself carefully that it was only 3:30 in the morning, that there was no reasonable way to do any of the things swirling together in the forefront of my anxiety. Getting up to clean the... Read more
Just a few links for this first Saturday of the year. First up, here’s Matt laying out what’s at stake in the upcoming Anglican Primates meeting. Prayer would be much appreciated for all those gathering. And here is a wonderfully fierce response to the talk at Urbana that caused so much hue and cry this week. If you’re casting about looking for hope, as I always am, you can be comforted not only by this post, but that this young... Read more
Happy New Year! I managed to be not quite asleep by midnight and so did not avoid hearing the angry shouting of the girls trying to get the boys to pay attention to the ball drop. We just left them all there, in a pile in the living room, and prayed that nobody would do anything really foul on the television. The few minutes I myself watched lead me to believe that 2016 isn’t going to be very good at... Read more
I am slowly being sucked into an Internet sinkhole of Star Wars reading which I will momentarily suspend to acknowledge that this appears to be the last day of the year. How it seems to have crept up on me. I was carrying along merrily, sitting upon my crumb encrusted chair, sipping eggnog, watching the children watch six separate movies on their six separate kindle fires, causing my aching finger to scroll back and forth over my own new shiny... Read more
Preventing Grace
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